What tragedy is teaching us

A few weeks ago there was a mid-air crash at the DC airport.  Many lives were lost.

As we read more about it, it became clear to us that this loss of life was predictable.

There had been close calls, one just a week earlier.  There was too much traffic. 

There had been warnings.....and too many people had ignored them.  

This shook us, and then it shook us even deeper.

We asked ourselves:  Are we letting God's messages to us to get through to us.  What might he be warning us about that we should heed?  

Within the past few months we both have broken our wrists.  What we notice is that one of the effects of aging is that healing is slower.  Last winter Vicky fell on her bike, and is being followed by an orthopedist about her knee.  

Cycling is very important to us.  We have cycled 33000 miles in our marriage...but only 1000 last year (after doing 5000 the year before that).

We are reading the signals:  We cannot do what we used to do, and unless we change we might be risking very serious accidents.  We are being warned.  

So, a biggie:  cycling is basically over for us.  We bought two electric trikes, and will be giving our 5 electric bikes to Candice to use for her trail marking.  They'll go to good use, so we're happy about that.

It would be legitimate to call a lot of what we do "exercise."  But we don't use that concept.  Instead, we both need to be outside moving our bodies, like we did as children of the 50s.  We really need to cycle.  We love cycling on the Rim, in Pine, and on the golf car trails in Leisure World in the early morning dark.  We just love it.  It's never been an effort to get out, even when the temperatures are below freezing.

But we're done.  We are going to make significant changes before something really serious happens.

Consequently, we purchased two RAD trikes.  Our chances of falling will be significantly less, and even if we might fall, our speeds will be slower so there will be more opportunities to right ourselves before a fall or to fall gently.

We've been given the warnings.  We need to heed them.

We will still be able to get out onto the golf paths at night, just the two of us, looking at the fountains, the moon, the coyotes, and each other.